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Loading ...It seems that every time a major lawsuit is launched against a plethora of companies, Buffalo is the first to get hit. Like the one about the WiFi patents from Australia like a year or two ago, Buffalo got hit first and hardest, now SanDisk is suing everyone and their brother in a new flash drive lawsuit and Buffalo gets hit first.
So, if you were hoping to get your hands on one of those very affordable, very fast, Type-R flash drives that Buffalo was soon to be bringing to the states, no deal. They’ve been forced to halt sales of all of their flash devices due to possible patent infringement in the controllers for the flash devices.
SanDisk is also hitting Kingston, PNY, Corsair, Edge, and A-Data, but, chances are, Buffalo will be hit first and hardest again because if they constantly attack the small guy and they win, it allows them to set a precedent in the courts making winning all the subsequent cases much, much easier. Buffalo has released a statement basically saying they will either prove the patents aren’t valid, they aren’t enforceable, or they aren’t infringed, whatever the case may be, but in order to keep things amicable they went ahead and ceased importing the drives.
[via everythingUSB]
Yeah, interesting one really. I would imagine that it could be quite hard for anyone to prove that their controller has actually been copied unless it did something very specific that was unique to say SanDisk flash drives. After all, in general, one controller is much like another! No?